Just because an employee takes time under the Family and Medical Leave Act doesn’t mean you can’t investigate his or her misconduct. You just need to be careful about it, says Jeff Nowak of Franczek Radelet. He cites a recent case out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit as a prime example of how to go about this type of investigation.
The plaintiff in the case was a middle-school teacher and it was alleged he shook a student in the hallway, pinning her against a wall. The state child protective services cleared him in an investigation, but the school board needed to conduct its own inquiry. Just as it was about to, the teacher took FMLA leave. Eventually, he requested assignment to another school, which was granted. However, he still sued the district for interfering with his leave by requiring him to report to work to participate in the internal investigation, attend appointments with other doctors and return to work at a school that also had children with behavioral issues.
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